"Local authorities should take in to account the potential energy value of food waste when they consider their waste collection strategies. This, together with the fact that many residents feel strongly about weekly food waste collections, has led us to address the issue in our revised guidance"
Dr Liz Goodwin WRAP’s CEO
WRAP has welcomed the CLG Select Committee Report on refuse collection. The organisation says that the report underlines that where local authorities choose to introduce alternate weekly collection (AWC) systems for refuse and recycling, they need to be well designed, properly implemented and appropriate for local conditions if they are to help divert waste from landfill and increase recycling rates.
WRAP has published its revised guidance for local authorities who are considering introducing AWC services, which appears to be timed to coincide with the select committee’s report publication.
The WRAP guidance addresses householders’ concerns about food waste, which have been a key issue in relation to AWCs. The guidance proposes that where AWCs are under consideration, local authorities should also consider weekly food collections for anaerobic digestion (AD) or composting. This approach also came out in the select committee’s report based on the evidence they received.
WRAP is involved in ongoing research which shows that the separate collection of food waste is likely to be the most successful way of diverting this material from landfill. Anaerobic digestion is also shown to be a good option for the treatment of food waste.
Futuristic vision
The organization is also looking to the more distant future and a vision of energy production by AD using discarded food such as dairy produce, fish, meat and vegetable peelings, as a common source of renewable energy and an organic fertilizer for crops.
‘Just as recycling takes what was once simply rubbish, turns it into new products such as newspapers, fleece jackets, drink cans and jam jars, so the food we throw away can also be recycled, recovering energy to provide electricity and heat for use in homes.’
WRAP’s current research includes work with seventeen local authorities across England to trial food waste collections with subsequent treatment in anaerobic digesters (AD) or in-vessel composters.
AD breaks down the food waste producing methane gas which is used to produce energy for export to the National Grid.
Biogen UK
An operational AD plant is run by Biogen UK, at Milton Ernest in Bedfordshire. It receives about 12t of waste weekly from a WRAP supported trial operated by Bedfordshire County Council. The residue from the process is used as a bio-fertiliser on adjacent farmland tended by sister company, Bedfordia Farms Ltd. ‘This fertiliser is a good soil conditioner which saves buying fossil fuel based fertilisers’.
The BIOGEN plant has been operating on a feedstock of pig slurry and food manufacturers’ waste since it started operations over a year ago. The company, which has plans to develop a national network of AD plants across the UK over the next 5 years, believes that household food waste can become a valuable ingredient to the process in the future.
”We think the WRAP funded trials are a significant step forward” said Rob Bates, Development Director of BIOGEN. “We now have three councils running food waste separation trials with us successfully. At BIOGEN we can help release the energy potential of this fuel thus helping local authorities meet their waste reduction targets and improve their overall carbon footprints”.
WRAP’s CEO
Dr Liz Goodwin WRAP’s CEO said: ‘Local authorities should take in to account the potential energy value of food waste when they consider their waste collection strategies. This, together with the fact that many residents feel strongly about weekly food waste collections, has led us to address the issue in our revised guidance.’
Dr Goodwin added: ‘The potential to harness the inbuilt energy and nutrients from household food waste is a significant step forward in diverting more waste from landfill. It also means action on climate change as the harmful methane gas that is emitted from food as it degrades can be diverted from the atmosphere and put to real practical use.’
Further information
The revised WRAP report on alternate weekly collections can be downloaded from the WRAP website.
For more information on Biogen visit the Bedfordia website.
Research by Eunomia for WRAP on food waste suggests that if the 5.5 million tonnes of food waste in the UK were targeted for separate collection and anaerobic digestion, between 477 and 761 GWh/year of electricity would be generated which is enough to meet the needs of up to 164,000 households. For further information visit the biowaste section of the WRAP website.